CATV systems use hundreds of multi-taps to provide RF and AC power to subscribers through coaxial drops. The multi-taps are eventually upgraded or replaced due to damage, product improvement, etc. Since the housings of the multi-taps are fixed in length (typically about four inches) and it is very difficult to remove the connectors from the coaxial cable, most installers simply cut the coaxial cable at the connector base and install another connector in the cable. Since a multi-tap housing length is fixed, the shortened coaxial cable might not reach and fit into the multi-tap. A prior solution is to replace the removed shorter housing with a relatively longer multi-tap housing. For example, a nine-inch multi-tap housing is long enough to accommodate the upgrade of all standard multi-taps in the industry. It is known in the art to utilize this idea by simply using a single base plate or top plate in the longer housing.
Furthermore, different amounts of RF power must often be tapped off to different users because they are at respectively different distances from a multi-tap. Whereas this could be affected by designing the circuits in the multi-tap in such a manner that they provide the required levels of power to each subscriber input port to which the cables are coupled, this would be very expensive. Therefore, it has been customary for all of the tap-offs of a multi-tap to provide the same amount of power. Since the circuits are mounted on the inside of a removable cover known as a tap plate for the multi-tap, it is necessary to change tap plates to supply a desired amount of tap-off power to a group of subscribers.
There are situations, such as in apartment houses, wherein a large number of multi-taps are required. With present multi-taps in which input ports are at one end and output ports at the other, the interconnections such between a plurality of multi-taps for accommodating a huge number of subscribers can be rather complicated, and require a huge amount of space for mounting the multi-taps. This is an additional problem to those mentioned above.